State of affairs

The Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance government's Council of Ministers has over half a dozen ministers whose states - Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir - go to polls by January next year. Several of these ministers, sources say, have become busier tending to files and work related to their states, particularly those from Haryana and Maharashtra. These are also the two states where the Bharatiya Janata Party is confident of unseating the incumbent Congress governments. One of these ministers harbours ambitions to be the chief minister of his north Indian state.